This week’s meditation from The Society of St. John the Evangelist Monastery in Cambridge, MA is on WATER. The video has interesting reflections from many of the Brothers and the Rev. Becky Zartman. You can watch the 15:06 video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed-fP3huw30.

Reflecting on last week, I realized that in addition to water being associated with the beginning of our life through baptism, it is also the mark of the incredible power of God to give life, and end life, through water.

Last Sunday, I gave my first docent tour of the Exhibition: J.M.W. Turner: Quest for the Sublime from the Tate Britain at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville. In the gallery on the historical genre is a painting that was exhibited in 1805: The Deluge.  It is a large painting that depicts the flood with Noah’s ark and the chaos inherent in the destruction. It is breath-taking in its fury and you can tell that most of the inhabitants of the earth will not survive the power of the water. You can feel the enormity of God and the futility of the humans to think that they could overcome that much power.

In the entrance to the building is another exhibition in the Conte Gallery: The Nashville Flood: Ten Years Later. This photographic and audio series recounts the devastating flood in 2010 that caused 11,000 properties damaged, 10,000 people displaced and $2 billion in private property damage here in Nashville. There was also $120 million in public infrastructure damage.

When we went to sleep on Monday night, we had no comprehension of what was about to descend on Nashville. A tornado touched down on the west side of Nashville and traveled over 80 miles east to Cookeville. Lives were lost and property damage and people displacement are still being assessed. The storms that accompanied the tornado brought additional damage to properties after they had lost their roofs.

Volunteers came from all over to assist with the clean-up. I saw a limitless caravan of trucks and vans transporting bottled water to homeowners and volunteers as they worked in areas without electricity or other utilities.

Another plague has crept in to our every waking moment. By the end of the week, I’ve seen at least a hundred reminders to WASH MY HANDS with soap and water to help decrease the spread of the coronavirus.

The power of God is unfathomable. With water we are launched into the world in baptism, subject to God’s nature with floods and tornadoes, but then he also uses water for our renewal and protection.

And God is here with us in all things.

Blessings, my friend,
Agatha